To The Last Breath
by A Crownless Queen
Summary: It's a universal truth that our days on earth are numbered... with one exception. It doesn't take Adrien long to learn that her time is limited— and his, unlimited. [A series of connected short stories. AU. Sporadic updates.]


**To the Last Breath  
** by failedspidermankisses  
June 2016

* * *

山雨欲来风满楼。  
 _Coming events cast their shadows before them._

 **CHAPTER 01: The Coming Storm**

* * *

 **WHEN** Plagg realized just how young this new Chat Noir was, he wanted to curse Old Man Fu to an afterlife of eternal suffering. The child couldn't have been older than fifteen when he activated the Miraculous, and his stomach sank at that spark of defiant fire that burned in his gaze.

A child, cursed to live nine different lives…

But as he got to know Adrien, he felt fury on the boy's behalf and he pitied him. What he would one day realize, whether it be tomorrow or in ten years… of living a life that Plagg would not _ever_ wish on any human.

Being Chat Noir more often than not stripped them of their humanity.

Out of all his kittens, though, this had to be the worst. Fate was a cruel mistress, he had learned over the eons, but this time she was being especially harsh. A boy whose overbearing father neglected him, whose mother was missing, presumed dead. He wasn't blind to Adrien's feelings about Chat Noir – Chat Noir was freedom to him. Was joy. And Plagg knew it wouldn't be long until that changed for the kid, so he prayed that the day would not come until they were far into the future.

After all, Adrien had to be one of his youngest charges … and maybe one of the most kind. At the very least, he was the most optimistic. Or maybe he was just too stubborn to be anything _but_ optimistic; Plagg didn't really know what it was, and he supposed it didn't matter.

All he knew was that he just didn't want to see that light in his eyes disappear.

But he was sure it would disappear.

* * *

"Hey," Adrien said, bumping Nino's fist as they met at the bottom of the steps of the school and began to walk up them. "We still on for later?"

" _Dude."_ Nino bumped his shoulder, a little too hard. Adrien stumbled to the side, and only his quick reflexes saved him. "Oops, sorry. Of course we're still on. I am _not_ missing the opening of Star Wars."

He bit back a smile. Granted, he wasn't nearly as obsessed over Star Wars as his friend was, he actually wouldn't have watched it if Nino hadn't dragged him into a weekend marathon at his house with Alya and Marinette, but he did like them. Though, to be fair, he doubted _anyone_ could be as obsessed over Star Wars as Nino was.

"Great!"

* * *

"Are you… Is that the _Star Wars_ theme song?"

Chat Noir grinned at Ladybug and hummed it a little louder, this time singing the tone off-key. She groaned and bent over, covering her ears completely with her hands. He sang louder, throwing his head back, but laughter kept bubbling from him, interrupting his – Well, Ladybug _claimed_ it sounded like he was yowling off the fence, but his singing did _not_ sound like that, thank you very much.

"Chat Noir, stop!" she complained. Her giggles told him she wasn't really annoyed with him, but he stopped anyway and leaned back onto his elbows, just watching as she tried to hide her laughter behind her hand. There was that ever-present warmth in his chest that filled him whenever he saw her, and he felt his grin soften into a smile.

He honestly felt like the luckiest person alive. After all, he was able to be a superhero and save Paris on a weekly basis with the kindest, awesome-st soul he knew. So what if he had the occasional bout of bad luck? He had _her_ as one of his dearest friends. He trusted her with his life and his identity (or would, if the time ever came) and he just – He just loved _this._ All of it.

Being Chat Noir was amazing, of course it was, but it wouldn't be half as fun if Ladybug wasn't there. She was just so much _fun_ being around. He adored Paris and the people in it, but he really, really did not know what he'd do if he was doing this alone with Papillon out there… He had a feeling the result wouldn't be pretty.

But he wasn't alone and that was one of the things which made all this worth it in the end.

She waved her hand in front of his face, snapping her fingers together. "You look like you're thinking about something serious there." She was laughing as she said that. He grinned again at the sound. He kept smiling so wide that his cheeks ached – in a good way.

"Nothing really. I'm just enjoying your presence."

She smiled at him and as one, they stood. He took her hand and bowed exaggeratedly, kissing her knuckles. She pulled her hand out of his gentle grasp and poked his nose, her grin brighter than the sun and the moon and all the stars themselves.

"Good night, kitty."

He couldn't resist getting the last word in as she ran toward the edge of the building and leapt off. He sprinted up to the wall, threw himself against it, leaned over the edge, and yelled into the dull gray night, "Don't let the bedbugs bite!"

She responded with an angry shout but did not turn back toward him.

* * *

First, it began with whispers then there were judging looks. Antoinette ducked her head and forged on through her day, trying to ignore the increasing amount of stares from her classmates. When she arrived at her classroom, _early_ for once, she was usually late, she pulled out her phone and fiddled with _Temple Run 2_ for a few minutes before the lesson started.

The whispers continued on even through the class, which was not _unusual_ granted, but there was a prickling feeling on the back of her neck that told her that someone behind her was glaring at her. Maybe even several some _ones_. So, of course, she had a little feeling that she might be the brunt of whatever was going on.

That was not a good feeling. She'd already changed schools twice in the last three years when the bullying got to be too much…

Someone shoved her to the ground when class was dismissed and they all swept out. She stumbled, trying to grab the door to catch herself, and missed. Her head hit the frame and tears sprang reflexively into her eyes.

The laughing and the jeers were almost enough to make them fall, though she managed to hold them back by sheer force of will. She'd had a lot of practice, after all.

"Baby," someone sneered at her.

"She still sleeps with a nightlight in her room," someone added loudly, a voice she recognized. Her heart sank to the pit of her stomach as she met Susan's, her best friend, clear blue gaze. Susan smirked at her, a cruel twist to her lips.

She … told them? But she'd _trusted_ her… They'd been friends for years! Why would she tell them?

"What are you doing, Susan?" she asked, her voice sounding strange to her own ears. It almost sounded like she was unaffected though her emotions were raging inside her chest. She stood and curled her small, weak hands to her chest as tight as they could go. "You told them."

The slightest flicker in her expression that Antoinette couldn't quite read. Perhaps shame? But it was gone too quick, to be replaced with that smug superiority as she lifted her chin in the air.

She betrayed her. She'd told secrets that were not hers to tell.

Antoinette shoved someone out of her way and ran, ignoring the jeering laughter of her fellow _classmates._ She couldn't believe her friend had told them – She'd just gone and just … told the entire school. But _why_?

Hot tears were cascading down her cheeks as she shoved her way out into the nippy Parisian air and headed directly for the line of cars. Her best friend from since she was six betrayed her. She'd told the entire _school body_ her deepest, darkest secret, that she was scared of the dark, and she'd just – She just _told them all._ All for a moment of … what? Fame? Why would she _do_ that to her?

She forged blindly into the oncoming traffic, not that it was very dangerous for her. It was rush hour. Everyone was either getting out of work or getting out of school. So traffic was slow, even though there were many honks. She just – she just …

She wanted to make Susan _pay_ for betraying her trust.

 _"My name is Papillon,"_ a voice whispered into her mind, a voice that was as smooth as silk and rich as chocolate. It stopped her in her tracks, directly in front of an oncoming truck. She knew Papillon. He was in the news all the time with Chat Noir and Ladybug. But she had never expected his voice to sound like _that_ – She'd have thought it would have sounded more like a banshee shrieking or something.

" _I can grant you the power to make all light disappear so that people will_ truly _understand what it means to fear the dark. You can make your so called friend regret she ever betrayed you. All you have to do is to get me both Ladybug and Chat Noir's miraculous."_

She hesitated, something inside of her was _screaming_ not to agree to what this man had offered, what this _monster_ promised, but the darkness had already begun to warp her mind. Susan deserved to pay for everything she'd done to her. No, all of the _school_ deserved to pay for laughing at her – and then after that, she'll show the whole world what it means to fear the dark!

There would be no more light in the world – only darkness. Then everyone will understand.

" _Do we have a deal_?"

"We do," she agreed, a smirk on her face as the butterfly landed on the hairclip Susan had laughingly put into her hair just that morning to hold it out of her face. The clip her dad had given to her just months ago. Her green and yellow and brown uniform transformed into a sleek, dark purple gown. A pair of dark purple gloves formed on her arms that ended above her elbows as her hair turned from light brown to a black that was darker than night.

 _"Go and plunge the world into darkness, Illuminator._ "

The truck sounded its horn and swerved out of the way. Illuminator held her arm out toward him, elbow not bent, fingers splayed.

And she darkened the sun.

* * *

" _Aaaand_ done!"

Marinette held the final design of the t-shirt she had sketched on paper up in the air, tilting her head to the side as she admired it. The dreary, autumn sky split open and light shone through the clouds. Sunlight reflected off the raindrops in soft golden and red hues, making the world look like it was on fire.

"It looks really good, Marinette!" Tikki told her, poking her head out of the large purple bag she had grabbed on her way out of the house. She opened her mouth to respond to her compliment when her phone began buzzing. Dropping the sketchbook into the bag, she dug her phone and opened up the new texts from Alya. A shadow fell over her as she read through the texts.

 _From: Alya  
16:43 _

_Marinette marinette marinette_

There's an akuma! by the public school!  
She has WiCKED powers too the sun's gone  
Lb/cn not here yet

Marinette looked up, but the sun was hidden behind the clouds so she had no idea what Alya meant about the sun. Maybe it was a weather akuma that had hidden the sun behind the clouds? Yeah, that was probably what she meant to say – She just didn't complete her sentence or something like that.

"Looks like there's another akuma prowling about." Marinette told Tikki as she stood and looked around for an alley to duck in to transform. There was no way she'd let someone figure out her identity because of _carelessness_.

"There!" Tikki said, pointing toward a darkened ally. She ran over and slipped in, throwing a glance over her shoulder to make sure nobody had seen her disappear. There was no one out in the park today – It was a typical dreary, miserable autumn day after all. The sunlight that had broken through had already slipped back behind the clouds again.

"Hopefully we can figure out where this akuma is pretty quick."

She nodded. "I'm sure it'll be all over the news."

She smiled at her friend. "Tikki, _transformme moi!_ "

* * *

 _"Ni JIA you er kou ren … wo cong fa guo lai … wo jiao_ Adrien Agreste _… wode baba jiao_ Gabriel Agreste _… ni … ming zi_ – Wait, no. Ni jiao ming zi? _Ni jiao shenme ming zi?–"_

"You keep pronouncing the fourth tone wrong," Plagg reminded him oh so helpfully. "It's supposed to go up quickly like the English YES!"

"And like I said before," Adrien repeated, trying to be patient but most definitely failing to keep the bite out of his tone, "I speak _French._ I do not understand English."

"Excuses, excuses," Plagg dismissed, rolling his eyes. "I'm hungry. Where's my camembert?"

"You're always hungry." He walked over to the miniature fridge by the arcade and pulled out a generous chunk of the stinky cheese, making sure to wrinkle his nose as he tossed it over to the kwami. He heard a thump and then a gobbling/slurping sound. He gagged reflexively, holding one hand up to his mouth as the other riffled through the unit for a bottle of water.

His phone beeped.

Blindly reaching for the device, he popped the cap off the water and gulped down half of it in one go. There was a notification for the Ladyblog displayed across his screen, blinking in bright red. Something about Alya going for an akuma –

 _Akuma!_

"Plagg!" he said, spinning on his heel, dropping both objects back down on the counter. He didn't even bother with snapping the lid back on the bottle. "Looks like there's a situation."

"What? _Now_?" Plagg groaned loudly. "But I was savoring my cheese."

"You already ate all of it, you pig." He retorted with a raised eyebrow. "You were not 'savoring' the cheese."

"I was still savoring it. And now I'm going to take a nap because–"

He brandished his hand, sinking into the transformation stance. "Plagg, _transformme moi!_ " he stated clearly, very much ignoring whatever the glutton was going to say next.

* * *

 _Please pick up, please pick up, please pick up,_ Ladybug chanted inside her head as the dial tone on the phone kept going on and on. She glanced up, unease stirring in her like there were butterflies in her stomach as she took in the darkened sun. Something about it didn't feel right – She almost felt like it was cloaked with the night sky when there were no stars out and it was a new moon.

Even the day itself was shadowy – like it was twilight instead of the middle of the afternoon.

Something inside of her relaxed when the phone clicked and she said without wasting a second, "Chat Noir, the akuma is on Main Street!"

"On my way, my lady!" he replied. "Don't let the milk spill – I have a bad feeling."

Regardless of the bad pun (was that even a pun?), over the last few years, they'd both learned that his "feelings" were usually pretty dead on. She nodded, even though he couldn't see it. "Okay. Try not to get distracted by a rodent, chaton."

And then she snapped her yoyo/phone shut with that before he could get a chance to respond. With a practiced flick of her wrist, the infinite string wrapped around the pole of a construction pole and she was soaring through the air.

* * *

"A _rodent_?" he stared at the phone, stopping for a moment on the middle of the roof. "My lady, you wound me. I'd only bring to you the _finest_ of delicacies." Though he wouldn't put it pass Plagg to bring a rat into his room just to annoy him. Actually, now that he thought about it, it was a little surprising that Plagg hadn't done just that already.

He took off running, extending his baton as he got to the edge of the roof and using it to throw himself into the air. For a few precious, exhilarating moments, he felt weightless. He loved this. He loved the surges of adrenaline and the feeling over belonging and the laughter. And then he hit the next roof running and in the blink of an eye, he was vaulting over that roof again and then he was sailing through the air. Over and over, the pattern repeated.

He might not be able to fly, but he could come pretty darn close.

Before he knew it, he could hear the akumatized victim screaming something, and Chat Noir neatly ducked into an alley to watch her for a moment. Surprise was his best bet against an akuma this strong – and this had to be one of the strongest yet.

He looked up at the lightless sun, and he clenched his hand against his staff so tight his knuckles almost hurt. It almost like it was – like it was dying, and that should be impossible. No one should have the power to block or to destroy the sun; it felt unnatural. _Wrong._ It felt really, really wrong.

Surprise. Surprise was definitely what he wanted. He did not want to fight someone with that type of power without some type of edge.

Narrowing his eyes, he watched as the akuma – Illuminator she was calling herself; that was a really misleading name – strut through the streets, aiming with her pointer and middle finger at … light? Chat Noir couldn't really tell how she was doing it, but each time she pointed at something that had light in it, whether it be a lightbulb, a truck, or a billboard, the light just … disappeared.

Ladybug dropped down silently by his shoulder, and he jumped a little at her sudden appearance before he focused back on the victim. He clung to the shadows, trying to stay unnoticed, and Ladybug followed behind him.

"Anything?" she whispered. He shook his head.

"She takes the light away," he whispered back.

"But that's impossible!" He looked pointedly at the sun and she blew her cheeks out adorably before releasing the pent up air with a soft _whoosh_. "How?"

"I don't know," he snapped. A loud screeching noise covered up his voice he had accidentally raised louder than a whispered. "The light just literally disappears. One moment it's there, and then I blink and it's gone."

He watched Illuminator. She extended her hand out toward a mall and, arm straight and flat, the bright, eye blinding light coming from it left.

"That's really creepy," Ladybug commented. He just nodded in agreement. "You stay here and try to figure out how to beat her," she whispered, "I have a feeling this isn't going to be one of our typical akumas. I'm going to go distract her."

"What – _Ladybug_!"

She gave him a pained smile and squeezed his hand. "I'll be fine," she promised, "and more useful out there than watching her from the shadows. You're more likely to catch something than I am."

After a moment of internal debate (they were _partners_ and she was _Ladybug_ – _He_ should be the one doing the distracting since she's the only who can cure the akuma), he nodded. She leapt up onto the building and called out to get Illuminator's attention.

—«·»—

 _Where is it, where is it, where is it?_ That was the only thing Chat Noir thought as he followed the fight between Ladybug and Illuminator with his eyes, carefully watching the akumatized victim. He slunk through the shadows, not that it was difficult now. It looked like midnight, and never had he been so grateful he had night vision.

Unfortunately, that night vision wasn't being very helpful now. It wasn't like an x-ray; he couldn't read through an opponent and see their weakness like the machines created imaged of somebody's bone structure. All he could rely on now were his and Ladybug's wits to figure out how to take this one down.

Easy enough. After all, between the two of them, they'd taken down a number of akumas over the years between her ability to connect the dots and his observations as Papillon had grown stronger. This should not be any different.

Every opponent had a weakness. The only reason why someone was unbeatable was because that weakness had not found yet.

There was a way to defeat Papillon, he was sure. They just had to face someone who manipulated other people's emotions to fight an underground war and find his weakness.

 _Focus on here and now, Adrien,_ he told himself, mentally shaking himself. _Worry about Papillon later._

So, what was Illuminator's fatal flaw?

—«·»—

Illuminator pointed at the sun, fingers splayed. Ladybug froze in the middle of swinging her yoyo at that grin, and it dropped against the ground with a loud _clang._ The akumatized victim looked … unstable. She looked insane. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end and she shook herself to get rid of it.

 _Move!_ She yelled at herself, and she snapped the yoyo back to her wrist. They would figure this out. This was just a little more difficult than average. That was all. Chat Noir was still here to back her up if things got really sticky.

So why had she frozen for a split second?

"Can Ladybugs see in the dark?" Illuminator shouted with a grin on her face and –

The sudden change from the twilight to midnight skies gave Ladybug a moment a vertigo. _Light,_ she thought furiously, _should be off limits, Papillon. This is just not_ fair.

By the time she had adjusted (or not – she couldn't see anything), Illuminator was charging for her and she had to roll out of the way. There was a loud sound, like steel grating against steel, and she felt Chat Noir stand in front of her protectively.

"I can't see," she hissed at him, knowing he would hear her no matter how softly she spoke. She clutched her weapon even though she knew it would do nothing to help her now if she could not _see_ where or who the enemy was. Chat Noir definitely had the advantage now that there was literally no light. Even at night, the city was still lit.

This? This was darker than any night she had ever seen. It was unnatural. Lifeless.

"I still don't know what was akumatized."

Bad. Very, very bad.

There was nothing she could do in her current situation. She could not see, and Chat Noir still hadn't found the akuma's weakness.

Except, there was always Lucky Charm, if they got desperate enough. It was too early to really summon it, she'd rather know where the akuma was … but at this point, they really had no choice. They had to regroup and recharge. They were stuck. And to become unstuck, you had to _move._

"Chat Noir!" she shouted, knowing he would cover her. She took her stance and threw the yoyo up into the air. "Lucky Charm!"

The object fell into her hands and she ran her hands over it since she could not see it. A flashlight? What was she supposed to do with this when the akuma could literally hide out the sun?

For a moment, everything stilled and went silent.

 _Cataclysm: make her fall_

 _Distract_

 _Shine the light_

 _Cast it away_

And the akuma would go after the light, giving her enough time to grab Chat Noir and _get out of here._ Then they could recharge and try to figure out how to tackle this akuma … Being straight forward was not going to work. Their usual strategies weren't working.

"Chat Noir! The ground!" she shouted. A pause that lasted several long, tense heartbeats. All she could hear was the rushing of her own blood between her ears and the beeping of her miraculous. _Four minutes._ She peered into the darkness futilely, clutching the flashlight. This had to work, she hoped this would work –

"Cataclysm!"

A bloodcurdling screech came from the akumatized victim as the ground caved in underneath her feet like she had planned. Immediately, she switched the light on and threw it as far away from them as she could.

 _Take the bait, take it,_ take _it –_ that was all she could do now. Pray. And hope that she'll set off after that flashlight so she could grab Chat Noir and _run._ They were clearly not going at this the right way and they needed to time to think about this in another way.

Footsteps, running. _She took the bait_!

Blindly, she ran and crashed into Chat Noir. He caught her elbows and righted her before they could both fall. Giving him no time to regain his bearings, or her own for that matter, she just grabbed his wrist, hauling him away from this disaster of a fight –

– and would have tripped over a curb if Chat Noir had not swerved out of the way in time.

* * *

"Keep your eyes shut," Ladybug commanded, and Chat Noir nodded as he pulled her into an alley to transform. A part of him wondered how Alya was filming this fight when there was no light. Another wondered how long they would have before they had to get out of the alley because someone had seen it.

"Okay," he agreed, though a part of him wished not for the first and not for the last time that she trusted him enough to reveal who she was behind the mask. But Adrien was patient, and Chat Noir would not push.

The final, long beep signaled the end of their transformations, and Adrien kept his eyes screwed shut to block the light out. Ladybug's grip on his hand was so tight he thought that his bones were being crushed. And … flesh. He was holding her bare hand. There was no leather in the way or spandex. Just a calloused, strong palm in his own. That was still crushing his hand.

"My lady," he said, his voice not quite as smooth as it was as Chat Noir, "You're kind of crushing my hand."

Her hand was gone, like he had just burned her. He instantly craved the lost contact and wished he had _not_ told her.

"Sorry," she said. Her voice was still the same.

"It's fine."

"Plagg!" a feminine voice shrieked, and then he felt something zoom by his ear and crash into the _suspiciously quiet_ fiend.

"Spots!" Plagg shouted back.

"It's so good to see you again! I just wish it was under better circumstances."

"Yeah, you too. Hey, kid, where's my camembert?"

"Camembert?" Ladybug sounded confused. Adrien wrinkled his nose and pilfered through his bag, looking for the smelly cheese. "Oh, Tikki, cookies."

 _Ladybug's kwami is Tikki. Plagg knows Ladybug's kwami. Ladybug is detransformed._

It was amazing he wasn't having a nervous breakdown. Or, at least, not yet. He settled against Ladybug's back, sliding to the ground in sync with her as he held out the cheese. He couldn't see anymore, now that he didn't have night vision, but Plagg was a cat technically and he knew he could see his food.

His paw brushed against his hand and the weight of the cheese disappeared. A new weight settled in his lap, and he leaned his head back with a sigh.

There was no light at all. No moon, no stars, no sun. There were no florescent light from malls or stores or sky scrapers or homes or– or anything. There was just _darkness_ and that … was just unnatural.

So, this had been what the world had been like once, in the beginning.

Ladybug shifted against him and he smiled slightly, warming. Maybe not quite like how it was in the beginning, then.

"Any ideas?" she asked. Adrien shrugged.

"Nope," he said, popping the 'p.' "I got nothing. We don't even know what the akumatized object is."

For a moment, neither of them said anything. Adrien just stayed still, thoughts whirling a hundred kilometers per hour, too fast to completely comprehend. He wasn't even sure what to think anymore. But he _did_ know they needed a plan to take this akuma down. Fast.

"Don't worry," Ladybug said suddenly, and she took his hand with hers. Warmth enveloped where their flesh touched for the second time, and he pressed his head against the back of her skull. "We'll figure this out. We always do."

 _Right._ Of course. They were a team. They could take on the world and, if they stuck together, they could come out of it alive and in one piece. So, they could do this. This was just an akuma. Granted, a more-powerful-than-usual akuma, but still an akuma.

Nothing they had been defeated by before. And nothing they would _ever_ be defeated by.

"Well, you're not going out there _without_ a plan," Ladybug's kwami, Tikki, said. Plagg shifted in his lap and Adrien got the feeling he was spilling cheese all over his legs.

"Yeah," he added with an unusually grave tone. Adrien almost didn't recognize it. "Spots is right. This akuma is really, really, _really_ dangerous. The sky is Off Limits and Papillon crossed a line." He muttered something about a Nooroo and prices, but Adrien didn't catch the rest of his words.

A heavy silence fell over all four of them, thick and foreboding. His skin crawled at the weight of Plagg's words. _Plagg_ , who didn't care about anything except cheese, was actually _serious._ And if he didn't know any better, Adrien would say he was _worried._ But the notion was just silly consider; no, not just silly, _impossible._ Because Plagg didn't _do_ worried or – Well, he didn't do anything but sarcasm and cheese hoarding, really.

Which meant that this wasn't good. In fact, this situation was really, really _bad._ And had to be ended as soon as possible.

"We can't do anything to the akuma until we actually purify the evil from within it." Ladybug's voice was steady though he could feel the rigidness of her muscles through his thin shirts and whatever it was that she was wearing. Her words weren't very reassuring, especially when neither of them knew where to begin to _look_ for the akumatized item. And that, combined with her body language… "We have to find the object Papillon tainted."

"How?" Adrien asked, throwing his arms in the air. "My lady, we've never gone this long without knowing what it is. Even between the two of us…"

"… Don't you dare give up, Chat Noir."

"I'm not," he reassured even if he felt himself bristle a little at her words. Of _course_ he wouldn't give up. He had a duty to her and to Paris. That didn't leave any option for giving up. Besides, he loved being a superhero, no matter how frustrating it could be at times. "I'd _never_. But we still don't know where to begin."

For a moment, neither of them said anything. What was there to say? They couldn't plan to get whatever it was that the akuma had hidden inside because they didn't know _what_ the thing _was._ How could they plan to fight for something they didn't even know?

"I guess," she said eventually, "we need to find out what we're looking for."

* * *

Ambushing an innocent civilian had not been what Chat Noir thought Ladybug had intended when she said they "needed to find out what it is." But here they were, lurking in the dark, shadowy corners of the akumatized person's school.

Though lurking in the dark wasn't really that hard, seeing as there was no night and the only person who could even see in complete utter darkness was himself.

But, still. It was the thought of actually _ambushing_ somebody… Chat Noir was pretty sure that wasn't really hero-like, even if they had a good reason. And justification.

"I'm very uncomfortable doing this," he hissed at her, peering into the darkness. Ladybug tightened her grip warningly on his bicep. Oh, right. She was practically holding him hostage. That was why he had agreed to this. He would have run away from Possessed Ladybug if she hadn't been. Because Ladybug didn't suggest doing stuff like this. He did. And Ladybug was usually the one who went along with it. Not the other way around.

 _Whoever said she was the voice of reason?_ A part of him wondered grumpily, though he stayed very, very still. Someone was coming around the corner. Someone who should not be here. Someone who looked very, very guilty. Like she was in trouble. Or like she had _caused_ trouble.

He tapped her foot with his baton. The signal they had agreed on. Because if they were ambushing some Maybe Not So Innocent civilians, then they needed a badass secret signal. Ladybug had flatly suggested chucking his baton at the civilian that was "probably the troublemaker" after they had heard someone talking about a Susan telling the girl's secret fear of the dark. He had suggested tapping her foot instead. They had to compromise.

Well, he hoped she'd been kidding about ambushing the civilian but … apparently not.

"Hello," Ladybug said smoothly as she kicked off the wall gracefully, never mind that she or anyone but Chat Noir could see. Or maybe she hadn't been doing that for him. Two years of being superheroes had made both of their movement smooth and practiced. "A little birdie told me you might know what's going on with your friend."

The girl stopped like a deer caught in headlights. She just stood frozen still for a moment, and then he could see the way her lips peeled back into a snarl and her shoulders made her hunch into herself.

"I did nothing!" she blurted. "I swear it wasn't my fault! They would have hurt me!"

He could see the way Ladybug arched an eyebrow in his head and the retort forming in her head. Chat Noir tapped her elbow, stepping forward, and talked before she could make the situation worse.

As much as he loved his lady, she had never really been very patient, or forgiving, with people that she thought were liars.

"Even if you believe you did nothing wrong, your friend is still akumatized and she's a dangerous one at that. Is there anything she had on today or with her that she considers precious?"

Then again, he wasn't the best when it came to tact, so he had no room to judge. Not that he would actually judge. He had just observed it over the years.

The girl hesitated. "A … a hairclip," she said eventually. Chat Noir's mind flashed back to the thin, golden pin that had held her hair up high. He hadn't even thought it was out of the ordinary – Maybe a bit plain for the gown, but that was all. "Her dad gave it to her when he was drafted into the war."

He traded a look with Ladybug and she caught it unintentionally. Probably. That had to be it. Of course that was it.

"Anything else?" Ladybug asked. The girl shook her head.

"No."

"Okay," his lady said, and turned on her heel. "Let's go."

 _We know what we're looking for now._

They knew how to take this akuma down.

* * *

Of course, the problem with getting the hairclip now was that she couldn't actually _see_ it and Chat Noir was busy distracting the akuma who, apparently, _could_ also see. Luckily, Ladybug could figure out where the two of them were thanks to hearing and that strange _knowing_ where her partner usually was that had developed over the years as they grew closer.

She needed light. Ladybug did _not_ like dealing with darkness. Or nothing-ness. Or whatever _this_ was. She heard a particularly foul curse from Illuminator and then a hiss from Chat Noir and she winced. The longer this fight went on, the more susceptible they all were to injuries.

Which meant she had to end this as quickly as possible, before they had to recharge a second time.

"Lucky Charm!" she shouted, throwing her yoyo up in the air. Something square and thin landed in her hands, and she fingered it, eyebrows knitting together when she tore it open and several long, thin sticks slid into her palm. "A match?" she wondered out loud. "What am I supposed to do this this?"

 _Strike it_

 _Light a fire. To see_

 _Take the clip_

Aha!

Swiftly striking the flint against flint, a tiny flame lit, illuminating her hands. It stood out like a beacon in the darkness, and she threw it at a tree without a moment of hesitation. After all, Miraculous Cure always fixed all damage.

Immediately, unnaturally, the fire caught and spread. The flames twisted and leapt in the air, casting a strange glow around them. She could see Chat Noir and Illuminator fighting neck to neck, the shadows making them look almost inhuman.

"Light!" the victim screeched. " _LIGHT!_ " Her eyes met Ladybug's, purple eyes swirling. "How _dare_ you create light in _my_ DARKNESS!" There was something almost … almost unhinged. And that was normal, because most akumas _were_ unhinged. Except there was something different about this akuma: there was something almost _feral_ about her. And Ladybug wasn't sure how she knew that, just that she _did_ know that and it _scared_ –

The akuma held her hand out toward her, fingers splayed. And suddenly, the shadows from the fire were withdrawing toward her palm. Ladybug saw sharp daggers and pointed teeth. She saw the monsters that lurked in the dark she had stopped believing in long ago.

 _I made a mistake,_ she realized. _The light only makes her stronger._

"LADYBUG!" Chat Noir screamed, jolting her. But it was too late. There was no way she could get out of the way of that shadow. That shadow she was _sure_ was not _safe._ That shadow she was sure was tangible though she had no idea how. That shadow that was headed _directly for her_ and was _on her_ already –

A black blur shoved her out of the way.

She heard a strangled cry, too startled to even curse.

A feeling of fierce dread washed over her like a tidal wave, so quickly it left her dizzy and her stomach unsettled –

And then her gaze fell on Chat Noir's lifeless, crumpled body.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** … Oops.


End file.
